Modern commerce requires transportation of goods from one location to another. Transportation of goods can be accomplished using various approaches. One common approach involves packaging goods onto pallets, loading pallets onto transport vehicles (e.g., motorized vehicles or trailers attached thereto), driving the transport vehicles to a destination, and then unloading the pallets from the transport vehicles. Unfortunately, the goods on the pallets are often damaged when neighboring pallets move into each other during transit, resulting in great economic loss for the goods provider and/or the transport vehicle operator.
Several attempts have been made to solve the problem of moving pallets. One approach involves chaining the pallets in place on the transport vehicle. While this approach can work for certain transport vehicles (e.g., flatbed trucks or trailers), it is often not available on other transport vehicles (e.g., enclosed beds or trailers).
Other approaches require specialized flooring that is costly to install compared to standard wood floors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,330 to Smith (granted Mar. 25, 1980) describes a steel floor for freight hauling vehicles that includes anti-skid projections, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,420 to Hendricks (granted Jan. 19, 1982) describes a channeled cargo-supporting floor and a snubbing device releasably engaging the floor channels and projecting upwardly to block movement of cargo. The relatively high cost for specialized floors has precluded wide adoption of such approaches.
Anti-skid plates are sometimes used between the bottom of a pallet and the floor of a transport vehicle, but the plates have disadvantages. For instance, the anti-skid plates cannot be efficiently removed after they attach to the pallets or to the floor. Anti-skid plates that remain attached to the floors of transport vehicles can destroy wheels of forklifts that are used to remove pallets from the transport vehicles. When the anti-skid plates remain attached to the pallet, those plates can destroy floors to which the pallets are moved after being unloaded from the transport vehicles. In some cases, the plates can unexpectedly fall from the pallets during forklift transport, and individuals can later injure themselves by stepping on the fallen plates. One additional disadvantage of the anti-skid plates is their life cycle. Plates that attach to the pallets or the floors cannot be reused.
The above approaches have had limited commercial success, mainly because none of the approaches can be efficiently used for enclosed transport vehicles, which are widely available. Removal of the restraining devices for each approach can also be time-consuming since removing the restraining devices often requires extra steps beyond simply unloading the pallets. The transport industry still seeks efficient and cost-effective solution to the problem of securing pallets so as to prevent damage to goods during transport. Clearly, devices that solve the above problems are needed.